Mosaic lets students make a mark

Mural project for city’s new high school combines art, science

Students at the new Escondido high school Del Lago Academy (opening in August) work with a Scripps scientist-artist on a mosaic mural to be hung in the school's career center.
JAMIE SCOTT LYTLE / For the U-T

ESCONDIDO  Time was up for Friday morning’s work on a mosaic mural for Escondido’s new high school, but future students Joe Smiljkovich and Mari Pedroza weren’t eager to stop.

“I need three more hours,” Joe said in response to a teacher bellowing “Two more minutes!”

Heads down over a concrete board base, Mari and Joe continued to assemble an osprey and a whale’s spout with tile, stone and glass.

The project for Del Lago Academy is led by Scripps Institution of Oceanography climate-change scientist Tim Lueker. He started over spring break, and Joe had spent three days so far working on it.

“It’s fun. And I want to leave my mark on the school,” said Joe, 14, an eighth-grader at Bear Valley Middle School. “I can take my grandparents there and say, ‘I did that.’ ”

Dozens of future Del Lago Academy classmates met last week at the old Center City High School, a historical building in downtown Escondido, to work on the 17-foot-by-20-foot mural. The artwork, called “Imagine Your Future,” will hang in the career center of Del Lago, which opens in August.

Del Lago Academy — Campus of Applied Science, near Citracado and West Valley parkways, is the Escondido Union High School District’s fourth comprehensive campus. The college- and career-preparatory school will serve up to 800 students with a biotechnology and medical sciences focus.

Principal Keith Nuthall said the mural idea emerged from discussions among Del Lago staff about a project that students could work on together before the school opens, “something enduring they could come back to when they’re my age and look at.” It’s also an opportunity for the kids to get to know each other, Nuthall said.

Humanities teacher Mike Newman took charge of the project and was introduced to Lueker through the Escondido Arts Partnership, a nonprofit group of Southern California artists.

Lueker, an Encinitas resident, has been with Scripps since 1983. He’s a self-taught mosaic artist who said he found his “inner artist” in 2005 when he took a leave because of funding shortfalls.

He said he always enjoyed outreach and speaking to young people about climate change. Now, he uses mosaics to promote awareness of climate changes that are affecting the oceans and the environment, with a particular focus in his art on coral reefs.

The sea-life-rich reefs are threatened by rising temperatures and carbon dioxide levels in the oceans, he said.

With his coral-reef murals, students “get a sense of the community of the sea. Now with coral reefs in danger, it seems like a really important message to get out to kids.”

For Del Lago, he designed a mural with contrasting images of coral reefs — one half shows reefs and sea life thriving because of steps to protect the environment, and the other half shows reefs ailing because of harmful actions. Jellyfish swarm the ailing side, while butterflyfish populate the good side.

“He works with them on the art side and providing information on science, so it’s a great fit for our school,” said Nuthall, the principal.